Microbubbles clean up Chinese lakeside

’It’s very gratifying to see our technology at work in the field,’ said professor of civil and environmental engineering Andy Hong, who developed the system at the university.

The microbubble system works by infusing water or soil with pressurised ozone gas microbubbles, making it possible to expose pollutants and make them easier to remove. The process is called heightened ozonation treatment, or HOT.

Until recently, heightened ozonation had not been demonstrated outside of Hong’s lab. But now, the University of Utah has partnered with Honde − a large Chinese environmental cleanup company − and the Chinese government to remediate the industrial site at the large lake, which is adjacent to Wuxi − a major Chinese city west of Shanghai.

‘Lake Taihu is polluted by numerous contaminants. Wuxi is an industrial city in a region dotted with polluted factory sites. The lake receives runoff from across the region, which causes nutrients to collect in the lake and feed harmful algae,’ said Hong.